Wear Studies on an Automotive Gasoline Engine Using Methanol Gasoline Blends - A Study of the Effects of Variables

This paper presents wear results of the top piston ring for an automotive spark ignited engine using gasoline and methanol blends. The Radiotracer Technique was employed utilising the multichannel analyser. In order to assess the wear process resulting due to each single factor viz. fuel type, engine speed, bhp and the water jacket temperature, investigations were carried out based on a series of statistically designed experiments. The design matrix employed a one half replication of 2⁴ set. The study showed that the speed and load of an engine markedly affect the top ring wear. Use of alcohol blended fuels was found to marginally increase wear especially at low operating temperatures.